Soft Matter Blog

The 29th Society of Polymer Science Japan (SPSJ) – Research Group on Polymer Gels Symposium was held at the Tokyo Institute of Technology on the 11th & 12th January. Soft Matter was proud to sponsor two awards at this symposium and both winners will receive one years free subscription to Soft Matter!

Takumi Watanabe (Shinshu University) won the Soft Matter Presentation Award for his presentation titled ‘Polystyrene-Composited Microgels Prepared in the Presence on Polyelectrolyte Microgels’.

Takeshi Fujiyabu (The University of Tokyo) won the Soft Matter Poster Award,  for his Poster Presentation titled ‘Comparison of Three Diffusion Coefficients Describing Dynamics of Polymer Gel’.

Prof Furukawa (central) with Soft Matter award winners Takumi Watanabe (left) and Takeshi Fujiyabu (right)

Congratulations to both Award Winners!

Soft Matter was proud to sponsor IUMRS-ICAM 2017, which took place this year in Kyoto, from the 27^th August to the 1^st of September. Over 1,200 oral presentations and 700 poster presentations were given across the 6-day conference.

There were 7 Soft Matter Award Winners, across 3 different sessions, focusing on ‘Soft Active Interfaces’, ‘Structure and Physical Properties of Polymers in Confined Systems’, and ‘Soft Matter Science and Technology – Revisit to Unsolved Problems and Challenges’.

Award Winners were;
NienTing Hsieh (Chung Yuan Christian University) for her Oral Presentation on ‘Molecular Design of a Dual-Functional Quaternary Amine Copolymer for Bacterial Reversible Self-Cleaning Control via Zwitterionic Counterion Activation’

NienTing Hsieh with Prof. Yung Chang (Supervisor)

Yoji Yamashita (Osaka City University) for his Poster Presentation on ‘Synthesis of Curable Hyperbranched Polymers Containing Dense Degradable Groups and Their Application to Degradable Cured Materials’

Yoji Yamashita with Prof. Eriko Sato (Supervisor)

Nozomi Arai (University of Kyoto) for his Poster Presentation on ‘Direct Observation and Modeling of Attachment Behavior of Colloid Particles on A Bubble Surface’

Nozomi Arai with Dr. Satoshi Watanabe

Dr. Yukari Oda (Kyushu University) for her Oral Presentation on ‘Interfacial Modifications of Thin Films by Preferential Segregation of Janus Macromolecules’

Dr. Yukari Oda

Dr. Keita Sakakibara (Kyoto University) for his Poster Presentation on ‘Preparation of High-Density Polyethylene Nanocomposites Well Reinforced by Cellulose Nanofiber Using Diblock Copolymer-type Dispersants’

Dr. Keita Sakakibara

Thanh-Tam Mai (Kyoto Institute of Technology) for his Oral Presentation on ‘Novel Features of the Mullins Effect in Filled Elastomers Revealed by Stretching Measurements in Various Geometries’

Thanh-Tam Mai with Prof. Kenji Urayama (supervisor)

Dr. Shohei Ida (The University of Shiga Prefecture) for his Poster Presentation on ‘Precision Synthesis of Controlled Telechelic PNIPAAm with Thiol-Termini for Construction of Homogeneous Network by Thiol-Ene End-Crosslinking’

Dr. Shohei Ida

Congratulations to all winners! We wish you the very best for the future.

The 28th Symposium organized by the Research Group on Polymer Gels, The Society of Polymer Science, Japan was held on 16,17th January 2017, in Tokyo, Japan.


This is the third year in a row that Soft Matter supported this event, which has been continuously very well received.

The winners of the price will receive a free subscription to Soft Matter.

On the image, from the left

Mr Honma’s poster was titled: “Micro Patterning of the Self-Oscillating Polymer Brush for Control of its Spatio-temporal Function”

Dr Tamate’s talk was titled: “Fabrication of self-oscillating colloidosomes undergoing cell-like complex shape oscillations”

Congratulations to all winners!